


Mr. Funk

by smapxorenji



Category: Arashi (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-05
Updated: 2016-07-05
Packaged: 2018-05-05 02:04:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5356844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smapxorenji/pseuds/smapxorenji
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sho recommends a bar he frequents to his colleague, Jun. Jun meets someone new and that guy has a nice smile, like really.</p>
<p>And oh, this guy(who is the owner of the bar by the way) can sing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. of Mojitos and Pumpkin Chips

**Author's Note:**

> I'll never have the motivation to finish it if I don't post part of it up so here's Chapter 1. Wanted it to be a one-shot but I guess it's turning out longer than planned.

The first time Jun had ever heard _Mr. Funk_ was at a bar Sho recommended two months back. Sho was a regular at Bar Lapin located just minutes away from their office at Aoyama. Sho told him that he came across the bar by accident late last year when he was out for a magazine shoot near their office. He was supposed to hold the shoot outdoors then but there was a sudden downpour and so, he had to look for an alternative location and that location was Bar Lapin.

“I hope it’s not some sleazy bar, Sho-san.” Jun commented as he stood up from his desk and slung the leather strap holding his prized Leica M9 over his right shoulder. It was his habit to bring it along with him no matter where he went as it was the first camera he bought when he got his first paycheck a few years ago.

Sho turned around from the main door with his arms folded. “Have I ever failed when it comes to my recommendations?”

Jun narrowed his eyes at Sho who was wearing a confident look on his face and sighed.

He was right.

“Fine, but you have to pay for my drinks if it doesn’t meet my expectations.”

Sho leaned against the wooden door frame and grinned.

“Oh trust me, it will.”

.

“They have excellent snacks that go well with their house cocktails.” Sho said as he stopped outside a blue door with two small windows on top. “We’re here.”

Jun looked up and saw the words “Bar Lapin” in white on top of the door. There was a white heart on top of the letter L and he shook his head. He was beginning to doubt Sho’s choice this time.

“What is this, Tardis?”

“You’ve been watching too much Doctor Who, Matsumoto-kun.” Sho laughed and pushed the door open. “Come on, he’s waiting for us.”

“Who?” Jun asked as he followed Sho in and walked down a small flight of steps before he heard someone greeting Sho.

“Sho-chan!”

“Hey Aiba-kun.” Sho waved and turned to look at Jun. “He’s one of the owners of this bar.”

Jun watched as the guy named Aiba wiped his wet hands from washing the glasses on his black apron tied around his waist and walked out of the counter. He noted that this Aiba has a nice built and was tall, but probably just a few centimeters taller than him. The main thing he noticed about him was that he has a very nice smile, and he really liked it.

“You must be Matsumoto-san!” Aiba said and raised his right hand immediately for a handshake. “I’m Aiba Masaki. Nice to meet you!”

“Matsumoto Jun.” Jun took Aiba’s hand and felt the other party return a firm grip as they shook hands. “I hope this guy beside me hasn’t been badmouthing me whenever he’s here.”

“Just a few complains here and there, right?”

“Hey I didn’t!” Sho groaned and Aiba started laughing as he ushered them to the counter and motioned for them to sit down. Jun looked around and saw that there was a small stage at the corner of the bar where a piano, a drum set and a mic stand were. Though the bar was not brightly lit, it was enough to make him feel at home together with this pop music coming from the Bose speakers hung at all four corners of the bar. He was picky when it came to pop music but this piece playing right now had a rather nice beat and he could not help but tap his fingers to the beat of it.

“This music sounds new.”

Aiba grinned at Sho’s comment and nodded his head. “Your ears are sharp. I just got this from Nino yesterday.”

“Doesn’t sound like his usual style though.”

“I told him the same thing last night when he first played it for me.” Aiba replied and placed a bowl of pumpkin chips on the countertop. “Freshly fried five minutes ago! Please try it Matsujun!”

Jun looked at Aiba and was amused what he had just called him.

Sho took a piece of chips and munched on it quickly. “You should stop giving people random nicknames.”

“Well, it sounds friendly enough. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind, right?”

Jun rested his left arm on the counter and grabbed a piece of chips from the glass bowl. “I’m fine with it.” He took a bite and paused for a second before he continued eating. “This is really good.”

“I’m glad you like it!” Aiba exclaimed in delight and grabbed a highball glass on his right. “The usual for you, Sho-chan?”

“Yeah.”  

 “One Moscow Mule coming up!” He turned around and grabbed a bottle of Russian vodka from his extensive range of alcoholic beverages before he briefly brought his attention to Jun. “How about you?”

Jun watched as Aiba added two shots of vodka into the glass after filling it with ice cubes.

“Mojito would be nice.”

“Muscat Mojito for you then!”

“Muscat?” Jun raised an eyebrow at Aiba’s choice and the latter smiled.

“Muscat and mint goes well together.” He explained while he poured ginger beer and lime juice and grabbed a bar spoon from the metal tray filled with water and started mixing. “I love muscat actually.”

“He can finish a bunch of it by himself according to Ninomiya.” Sho shook his head as he munched on his chips. “Speaking of which, he’s not around today?”

“Busy at the recording studio with Ohno-san.” Aiba added a slice of lime into the glass before he placed it on Sho’s coaster. “Here you go! Muscat next!”

“How often do you come here?” Jun asked as Sho gave a happy sigh upon drinking his beverage.

“Once a week as long as my schedule permits.”

“You lucky bastard.”

“If you cut down on your number of appointments, I’m sure you’ll get to be a lucky bastard too.”

“We have a reputation to maintain, Sho-san.”

“I’m the one doing the accounts so I know clearly how much we’re earning now.” Sho retorted and ran a hand into his hair. “We’re doing way better than last year so you should take it slow for a while.”

“Tell me about it when someone’s literally a walking Microsoft Excel.” Jun rolled his eyes at Sho and grabbed another piece of chips to eat. “I’m very sure my schedule isn’t as packed as yours.”

“I’m comparing our work schedule.”

“Well, I’m not.”

“Taking things slower is nice sometimes.” Aiba commented suddenly as he stirred the contents in the glass skillfully using the bar spoon. “Everyone’s moving so fast till I find it hard to catch up.”

Jun saw the spilt second frown on Aiba’s forehead before the latter looked up and met him in the eye.

“Here’s your drink.”

Aiba placed the glass of Muscat Mojito in front of Jun before he pulled the black stool on his right and sat down. Jun brought up the glass and shook it lightly before he took a sip. He grinned and took another sip before he placed it back onto the coaster.

“This could be my new favourite drink, Aiba-san.”

Aiba heaved a sigh of relief and smiled.

“Thank you for the compliment! So does this mean that you’ll be coming here more often?”

“It’s going to be pretty difficult this month with the Tokyo Girls Collection coming up.”

Jun saw the small pout on Aiba’s face and he could not help but smile once more as he continued talking. “But I think I can come by again early next month.”

Aiba gave a wide smile with his eyes crinkling at the corners with delight upon hearing Jun’s reply.

“So, do I get a referral fee?”

Aiba laughed at Sho’s comment and shook his head playfully at him while he took the empty bowl away and filled it up with chips once more. Jun watched as the other two continued talking while he drank his mojito and tapped his fingers again to the same pop music playing on repeat in the bar. He could probably pop by Bar Lapin again at the end of the month as their assistant would have returned to office from his overseas assignment by then.

_Or next weekend, maybe._

Jun thought and smiled to himself.


	2. of the Lovebird Singing

Jun clicked on the ‘save’ icon on his Adobe Illustrator and took off his specs. He has been working on the photos he took for Tokyo Calendar for the past two hours and a quick look at his folder made him realize that he was finally down to the last ten photos.

_I need a break._

He glanced at the time on his laptop and saw that it was almost 10pm. He figured he could take a thirty minutes break outside and return to office to finish up his work, pack up and head home for a nice bath and welcoming his precious two days’ worth of leave starting from tomorrow.

“Yosh.” Jun said and stood up to grab his jacket from the wooden stand while he started humming the tune he heard from Bar Lapin two weeks ago. Sho pointed out recently that Jun has been humming the same tune for the whole week and he did not even realize it himself.

He grabbed his keys from the table and left the office for Bar Lapin.

 .

Jun paused halfway down the steps when he saw that it was pretty crowded at Bar Lapin tonight and wondered if he should just drop the idea of drinking when he heard the familiar pop tune playing in the bar. The tune felt different to him because it was accompanied with someone singing this time and he was somehow drawn to the voice.

_This street is mine so give way to me!_

He realized it was Aiba singing when he looked ahead to where the stage was. Aiba was seated on a tall stool as he sang and kept his left hand on the mic which was on the mic stand. He was wearing a simple white tee with the word “Funk” in bold font along with a pair of black rimmed specs. The audience was clapping along to the beat as Aiba continued to sing as he kept his eyes on the lyrics stand and tapped his right foot on the stage floor.

_So how was it? Mr. Funk was amazing, right?_

“Are you going to continue standing there like an idiot?”

Jun blinked his eyes and turned to face a guy who had his eyes narrowed at him as he walked over to where he was. He had a mole on his chin and was shorter than him by a few inches. Just as he was about to speak, the guy stepped forward and stared at him for a few seconds before he grinned and took a step back.

“You must be J.”

“I’m sorry but what?” Jun asked in surprise as the guy pointed to the empty seat at the bar counter and motioned for him to go over.

“Matsumoto Jun.” The guy replied and entered the counter.

“Have we met before?” Jun questioned as he sat down and watched the guy take orders from another guy seated beside him.

“Aiba-san told me about this guy called Matsumoto Jun who has a mole under his lower lip and has natural curls.” The guy said and placed both hands on the counter as he stood in front of him once more. “So, beer for you? I don’t make cocktails.”

“You’re Ninomiya?”

“Bingo, but you don’t get a free drink, J.” Nino grinned and grabbed a beer mug on his right. “I guess you like Mr. Funk.”

Jun was getting confused as he watched Nino fill up the mug with beer. “Mr. Funk?”

“The song you’re hearing right now. It was initially for Oh-chan but I thought the song suits Aiba more after adding the lyrics in, _ne_?”

Nino looked at the guy seated beside Jun and the guy nodded before he turned to face Jun with a small smile on his face.

“Ohno Satoshi, nice to meet you.”

Jun took Ohno’s hand for a handshake and introduced himself as well.

“Sho-chan said the same thing about the song too.” Nino said and placed the mug of beer in front of Jun. “Wanted to get him to fill in the rap part but he was busy.”

“Sho-san writes lyrics?” Jun asked in surprise. “He didn’t tell me that.”

“Not surprised.” Nino snickered as he sat down on the tall stool. “He’s pretty good at writing rap lyrics though he fails quite a bit at other stuff.”

Ohno chuckled at Nino’s words and Jun followed.

“I had to stop him from slicing spam when we were out for a small company outing. The size of the spam cubes after that was horrendous.” Jun said and drank a mouthful of his beer. “He was taking way too long to slice too.”

“Sho-kun has other merits to cover his shortcomings.” Ohno said as Nino took his empty mug away for a refill. “He’s a very hardworking man.”

“You sound as if you’ve known Sho-san for a long time.”

Ohno nodded at Jun’s words. “Schoolmates. I wasn’t very vocal back in school. He was the one who came up to talk to me.”

“What a waste.” Nino sighed loudly and placed Ohno’s mug back onto the coaster. “If only Sho-chan discovered your talent for singing then.”

“Oh Matsujun!!”

Jun turned and saw Aiba walking over with a huge smile on his face as he gave a big wave to him.

 _Yet another blinding sight_.

“Hey.” Jun smiled as Aiba entered the counter and grabbed his apron on the black stool. “I didn’t know you can sing.”

“You’ve only been here like twice!” Aiba grinned as he tied the apron around his waist and washed his hands by the basin. “I don’t sing every day in here though.”

Jun nodded in understanding and looked at his watch. He has to head back to office to continue his work and brought up his mug once more to finish his beer before he stood up from his seat.

“You’re leaving already?” Aiba asked and Jun noted the slight disappointment in his voice as he took out his wallet from his jeans pocket.

“Yeah, I have to finish my editing before submission tomorrow morning.”

“Sho-kun’s not around to help?” Ohno asked as he ate a piece of pumpkin chips from the glass bowl.

“He’s away on assignment at Nagano.” Jun explained and looked at Aiba. “I’ll make a move then. You guys enjoy.”

“Wait!”

Aiba called out and motioned for Jun to wait as he made a quick dash into the kitchen and returned a while later with a paper bag on hand.

“Pumpkin chips.” Aiba smiled and held out the bag for Jun to take. “Please eat it as you work later.”

Jun eyed the bag and grinned before he took it from Aiba.

“Thank you, Aiba-kun.”

Jun waved to the rest and left the bar, leaving Aiba standing there, looking at the steps leading to the exit.

“Aiba-chan,” Nino came out of the bar counter and nudged his friend on the arm. “You’re drooling.”

Aiba brought his hands up to wipe his mouth but there was nothing. He groaned and looked at Nino who had a mischievous grin on his face as he sat down beside Ohno.

“So gullible as usual.”

Aiba sighed and smacked Nino on the arm, leaving the latter yelping in pain in an exaggerated manner.

“I’m suing you for domestic violence, Aiba Masaki.”

“We’re not even married, Nino!” Aiba rolled his eyes as he returned to the counter to serve a female customer who waved a while ago to get his attention.

Ohno chuckled and placed a hand on Nino’s shoulder, asking him to stop the teasing.

“Don’t worry, that lovebird will be fine tomorrow.”

“Lovebird?” Ohno asked and tilted his head at Nino for answers.

Nino smirked and spoke no more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Added some RL stuff in this chapter. I hope you noticed. =)


	3. of a Failed Connection and some Tea after that

_**Sho-san:** _  
_I’ve got news for you._  
_Bad and good._

_**Me:  
** Bad news first._

_**Sho-san:** _  
_The Wi-Fi connection is down in office and it seems pretty bad._

 _**Me:** _  
_Shit, for how long?_  
_I’m reaching office in a few minutes and I have to upload the photos for Vogue before 5pm today._

 _ **Sho-san:** _  
_Called the service provider and they said the connection will only be back up in the evening._

 _ **Me:**_  
_Oh fuck._  
  
_**Sho-san:**_  
_Told them exactly that._

  
  
Jun growled as he stepped out of the lift and stormed into the office. Sho looked up from his MacBook and Jun saw that he looked equally annoyed as well. Their assistant, Makoto, glanced up briefly to meet him at the eye and brought her attention back to her screen within seconds.

“I hope you asked for some compensation since the fault is on their side.” Jun huffed as he sat down and connected his camera to his laptop via Bluetooth to transfer the photos he took at the client’s studio a while ago.

“Free usage for three months and a permanent speed upgrade for free as well.”

Jun looked up from his laptop upon hearing Sho’s words. Now that was a pretty good compensation Sho got from the service provider.

_Sasuga Sakurai Sho._

“You’re welcome, Jun.”

“I didn’t even say anything.” Jun rolled his eyes and Sho laughed.

“I've checked with Aiba-chan and he said it’s ok for you to head down to his bar to use his Wi-Fi.”

“You what?”

“Well, you said you have your Vogue photos to upload within the hour and so, I found the perfect place with an internet connection for you.” Sho explained as he stood by the coffee machine to make his fifth cup of black coffee for the day. “That was the good news by the way. You can get me a pack of pumpkin chips when you come back up to thank me for it.”

Jun swore he saw a mischievous glint in Sho’s eyes and sighed.

“Fine, text him to say that I’ll be down in ten minutes and apologise to him in advance for me.”

Sho sat back down and grabbed his iPhone from the table to search for Aiba’s phone number.

Jun felt his phone vibrate in his pocket and slipped a hand in to get his phone. It was a text message from Sho with Aiba’s cell phone number in it. He narrowed his eyes at Sho to which the latter happily ignored and continued drinking his coffee in bliss.

He made a mental note to skip getting the chips for him later.

.

“You can use the LAN wire over there.” Aiba pointed to the white wire lying on the floor at the corner of his bar. “Nino complains about our Wi-Fi sometimes so he bought the wire for a more stable connection. Technology is amazing, isn’t it?”

Jun smiled at the sight of Aiba grinning and plugged the wire into his laptop at once. He was connected to the Internet in a matter of seconds and fired up his Google Chrome immediately to upload his photos.

“I’m making some Ceylon tea to drink.” Aiba said as he grabbed a yellow tin from one of the cupboards on top and showed it to Jun. “Would you like to have some? It goes well with the chips.”

Jun glanced up and saw that it was his regular tea brand. He smiled once more and nodded.

“That would be great, Aiba-kun. Sorry for disturbing you when the bar’s closed though.”

“No worries, I happened to be here for stock-taking anyway when Sho-chan texted me.”

Aiba spoke no more after he placed the cup of tea on the table and left Jun alone with his work while he continued to make his orders online with his usual supplier. He would glance up from his iPad from time to time to see if Jun needed anything from him. Jun wore glasses today and Aiba thought he looked really good in it. He noticed that Jun had long eyelashes and of course, that mole below his lower lip, and…

“Aiba-kun?”

He blinked his eyes at Jun who had noticed that he was staring blatantly at him and sat back up immediately.

“Yes?”

Aiba’s voice went a few pitches higher than usual and Jun chuckled. He almost wanted to hide below his counter out of embarrassment at that very moment.

“Can I have more tea?” Jun asked. “It’s my favourite tea brand actually.”

 _So that was the reason why Sho had given him this particular tea brand as a gift when he was in Singapore for an assignment last week!_  Aiba thought and secretly thanked Sho for it. 

“Sure!" Aiba regained his composure and stepped out of the counter to get Jun’s cup for a refill. "The tea will be ready in a minute.”

“You’re more of a tea person too?” Jun asked casually as he crossed his legs and waited for his photos to finish uploading.

“I’m ok with both coffee and tea but I try not to drink coffee after 3pm.” Aiba replied. “It takes a long while for the caffeine to go away in my body.”

“Sho-san should learn from you.” Jun commented and rested his arms on the round table when Aiba came back with his cup on hand. “He drinks coffee like water.”

“Just like Nino!”

“Caffeine addicts.” Jun shook his head and glanced at his laptop screen to see that the upload was finally complete. He heaved a sigh of relief and drafted a short email to let the chief editor of Vogue know that the photos are ready for viewing.

“I guess you're done with the uploading?” Aiba asked upon seeing that Jun had unplugged the LAN wire from his laptop and was rolling it nicely before he placed it back onto the floor.

“Yup.” Jun replied and drank his tea. “Thanks to you.”

“No problem! You can come down to tap on my Wi-Fi anytime.”

Jun smiled at Aiba’s offer and felt that he had to do something to thank him for his help.

“Do you have anything on later?”

“Not really,” Aiba replied as he sent in his orders online and kept his iPad into his navy green messenger bag. “I just need to go to the mart for a quick errand before heading home.”

“Would you like to have dinner together then?”

Aiba glanced up at Jun who looked a little nervous when he asked him that. He found him cute, _very_ cute to be exact. That was when he finally realized that he has really fallen in love with this man seated a few meters in front of him.

_Bingo, Nino._

“Ok!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The tea brand's TWG and it was established in Singapore. There are branches in Japan too but according to the staff at the Jiyugaoka branch, Singapore carries the full range of tea(to think I actually travelled all the way there to see if they have some Japan-limited tea but zannen, nope!) so yup!
> 
> I've got no idea if Jun drinks TWG tea though. XD


End file.
